Clinic For Students To Open Next Year

Program To Offer Wider Range Of Services

November 12, 1993|By RICK GREEN; Courant Staff Writer

The latest expanded health clinic for Hartford students will open early next year at Weaver High School, offering students an increased range of health care services, including gynecological exams and counseling.

Funded with an $80,000 grant from the state, the new clinic links the high school with the outpatient clinic operated by the University of Connecticut and Mount Sinai Hospital at the city's Burgdorf Health Center. The hospital and the clinic are just a few blocks from the high school.

The clinic also increases the role and responsibility of the schools in yet another area of a child's life -- something that educators and doctors say is essential because of the poor state of health of the city's adolescents.

"Adolescents are probably the least-served age group," said Dr. David Black, a staff pediatrician at the Burgdorf Health Center.

"We have a shortage of pediatricians in this area," he said, adding that teenagers "don't get any real preventive health care."

The new clinic is the latest addition to an increasing array of health services available to Hartford students. Hartford Public High and Quirk Middle schools offer numerous health programs and counseling in their clinics; Betances Elementary School will be opening a full-service clinic in conjunction with Hartford Hospital later this fall; and St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center will be starting a pilot series of mental health and medical programs at Barnard-Brown and Mark Twain schools soon. There are also school nurses in all of the city schools at least part time.

"The research says that if [health care] isn't available at the school location, the kids don't get it. They don't keep the appointments," said Leah Fichtner, director of health programs for the Hartford schools.

Fichtner said the clinic is not an increased burden for city schools but a new partnerhip between Mount Sinai, the Burgdorf clinic and the University of Connecticut. She also said the school system is becoming more aggressive in pursuing Medicaid

reimbursement from the federal government for eligible students it helps to treat.

"If you, tomorrow, said the school system isn't going to provide any more health care, who is going to pick it up?" Fichtner said.

"We are trying to be their primary-care doctor," said Black. "They will be able to get all of their health care needs taken care of."

What doctors and educators want is for students to be going to the best -- and most cost-effective -- sources for health care. Black said he hopes the clinic can cut back on costly visits to the emergency room, avoid more serious illness and get teenagers linked up with a regular doctor.

The clinic will offer primary and preventive care, health education and management of chronic conditions, as well as mental and reproductive health care. It will feature a full-time nurse practitioner, a full-time medical social worker, an administrator and secretarial support. Black and other doctors from UConn will also treat students at the clinic.

Students will be encouraged to develop a regular relationship with a health care provider; both Burgdorf and Mount Sinai will also be available for students on an emergency and after-hours basis. All services will be free.

"They will learn once they are out of high school where to seek care," said Weaver Principal Eddie Davis. "We really need to have some help. There is some [incorrect] thinking that teenagers are always healthy." He also said the addition of a full-time social worker will be a big help to his school.

The clinic will not distribute birth control devices. No school-based clinics in the city do that, but students are offered referrals and reproductive health care is offered.

Black said the clinic will also concentrate on violence prevention, substance abuse and maternal and child health care. If parents want an emphasis on reproductive issues, "we will discuss that," he said. "But we will not be handing out condoms.